The present invention relates to a three-piece solid golf ball. More particularly, it relates to a three-piece solid golf ball having exceptional flight performance and good shot feel at the time of hitting.
Many types of golf balls are commercially selling, but they are typically classified into solid golf balls such as two-piece golf ball, three-piece golf ball and the like, and thread wound golf balls. The solid golf balls generally occupy the greater part of the golf ball market, because they inherently have longer flight distance than the thread wound golf balls and have been improved to have soft and good shot feel at the time of hitting as good as the thread wound golf ball. The three-piece golf ball, when compared with the two-piece golf ball, has good shot feel while maintaining exceptional flight performance, because the three-piece golf ball can vary hardness distribution.
The three-piece solid golf balls are obtained by inserting an intermediate layer between the core and the cover layer constituting the two-piece solid golf ball and have been described in Japanese Patent Kokai Publication Nos. 108923/1998, 104269/1999, 253578/1999, 253579/1999, 253580/1999 and the like. In these golf balls, it has been attempted to compromise the balance of flight performance and shot feel at the time of hitting by using thermoplastic resin, such as polyurethane-based thermoplastic elastomer, ionomer resin or mixtures thereof, for the intermediate layer, to adjust a hardness, hardness distribution, deformation amount, specific gravity, elastic modulus of the core, intermediate layer and cover to a proper range.
However, the golf ball having sufficient performances has not been obtained in view of the balance of flight performance and shot feel. Therefore, it is required to provide a golf ball having longer flight distance and better shot feel.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a three-piece solid golf ball having good shot feel at the time of hitting, while maintaining exceptional flight performance peculiar to solid golf balls.
According to the present invention, the object described above has been accomplished by adjusting a correlation between the amounts of organic sulfide compound, organic peroxide and co-crosslinking agent in a rubber composition for a core, and a correlation between surface hardness of the core, intermediate layer hardness, cover hardness, thickness of the intermediate layer and thickness of the cover, to a specified range, thereby providing a three-piece solid golf ball having good shot feel at the time of hitting, while maintaining exceptional flight performance peculiar to solid golf balls.
This object as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.